One of the things that I have noticed about a lot of music documentaries over recent years is that they have gone from being in-depth films about certain artists and instead become fluff pieces for record labels.
Labels have learnt that you can whack a boy-band in a foreign city and group their sight-seeing with a few songs on stage and BANG you have what they call a documentary. But is it really? Not in my eyes – that is just a vehicle to make money from people seeing the film and then hoping they will go out and spend more money on albums and merch.
But that trend has just met a major roadblock in the form of Australian director Baz Luhrmann’s new film EPIC: Elvis Presley In Concert. Yes, in a way this is a concert movie but at the same time it is looking at the legendary Elvis Presley in a way that we have never seen him before – candid and his own words.
While working on his own Elvis feature film it was mentioned that Luhrmann that somewhere out there in the United States there was a treasure trove of Elvis footage. Out cuts from a long lost documentary, press conference footage, the Colonel’s own advertising tapes and perhaps the two most important things – an interview with Elvis talking about his own career and a stack of rehearsal footage that had never seen the light of day before.
So Luhrmann sent his people out to have a look and lo and behold they found the trove being kept under a salt lake in Salt Lake City. And while the footage was still in pretty good condition Luhrmann sat down with Peter Jackson’s employees (the same people that did the Get Back Beatles’ documentary) and restored the footage. When that was completed he then started work on working out to put this all together in such a way that it was watchable for an audience.
And that was where Luhrmann really begins to work his magic because Epic soon reveals itself as one of the most important music documentaries of all time. Not only does it showcase about 70 of Elvis’ tracks but it goes behind the scenes showing the work the man spent to bring his concerts to life and of course letting Elvis himself talk about the ups and downs of his career.
I’ll admit that while I grew up with Elvis records playing in our household and watching his movies on television I always kind of had the feeling that he was one of those musicians that was just handed music to sing so he sang it and then counted the pennies going into the bank. But Epic changes that opinion for me – here I see that Elvis was a gifted enough musician to be able to take control of a rehearsal and tell each member of the band what he wants from them. Even the backing singers end up in in-depth conversations with him as he discusses all the ins and outs of the tracks they are about to perform.
Even watching the footage of Elvis having fun at these rehearsals, laughing and making jokes with the crew and band changes how he will be perceived. For once we aren’t just seeing Elvis – The Icon – on the screen we are seeing Elvis the human being. That is a rare thing to see and Luhrmann needs to be congratulated for being brave enough to bring this to the big screen.
Of course, Luhrmann never allows this to become a ‘talking heads’ documentary. While intercutting the footage of Elvis rehearsing with Elvis in concert the director also manages to put his own stamp on the film. The now familiar Luhrmann red curtains appear a number of times while he also makes sure that there is never any filler in the film. Why do you need film score when instead you are creative enough to think about getting artists like Pnau to remix the King’s music for you.
Whether or not you are an Elvis fan EPIC: Elvis Presley In Concert is a must see. For the Elvis fans this is a chance to re-capture that live Presley magic and if you aren’t a fan this is a chance to learn about one of the most important artists that the US has ever produced… and the great news is that education comes from his very own words. I can also guarantee that if you aren’t a fan you will be by the time you leave the cinema.
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